Page 173 of Fall of Ruin and Wrath

“I hope not.” I pulled my gaze from the ceiling. “They may separate us.”

“Yeah.” Grady sighed, and he shifted slightly, trying to get comfortable, but he couldn’t move very much with his arms bound above his head with chain secured to the headboard.

I wasn’t bound.

Because according to the Prince, I wasn’t being held captive. I was beingrescued,and I thought they really believed that. But I also knew they had no reason to fear me attempting to make an escape. They were partly correct there. The first thing I did the moment they left was try to free Grady. I even used theluneablade they’d yet to discover on me, but the chain . . . it was constructed of the same material, and I learned then thatluneacould not pierce, crack, or shatter itself. But again, they were partly correct. Thanks to Hymel, they knew I wouldn’t leave Grady behind. I glanced at him, hating that he was in this situation because of me.

“Your eyes,” he said, voice thick. “I can’t get used to them.”

My eyes . . .

I’d finally seen them when we were placed in here and I was able to use the bathing chamber. There was a dirty mirror above the vanity and the light in there had been dim, but I’d seen them. The incandescent blue rings circled my pupils, just like they briefly had before. Whatever glamour the Prioress supposedly used had hidden them all these years, and I didn’t know if the glimpse of them before had been the glamour weakening or something.

“Are they . . . weird?” I asked.

“Kind of,” he admitted. “They’re also kind of pretty.”

I shook my head. “You were saying you think we’re being followed?”

“I heard Lord Arion talking to one of their knights this evening, before we stopped here. I didn’t hear why he thought this, but that’s why they wanted off the Bone Road for the night,” he said.

I swallowed, throat dry. There hadn’t been much in the way of food and water. Just a glass for each of us and something that was supposed to be a beef stew that we’d been given on our arrival. But if we were being followed? A tiny bit of hope sprang alive. Was it . . . was it Thorne? And if it was, what would happen then? “Do you think it could be . . . Thorne and his knights?”

Grady didn’t answer immediately. “I don’t know.”

“Neither do I.” I squeezed my eyes shut, opening my senses to find an answer to no avail. “I don’t see anything. I don’t know if it’s because a Hyhborn is following us or if it’s just that I’m . . . I’m tired and . . .” I sucked in a shallow breath that did nothing to alleviate the pressure gathering in my chest and stomach. “We’re what? About two days’ ride from Archwood?”

“Based on our pace, probably a little farther out than that,” he replied. “Prince Thorne went north, right? To meet with his knights. Even if he managed to still return to Archwood when he expected to, he would still be at least a day or so behind us.”

Whatever little hope had sparked was quickly extinguished as the thumping continued overhead. Not only would Thorne have to have ridden like hell to catch up with us, there was this trouble Prince Rohan had ensured Thorne and his knights would encounter.

There was also the fact that Thorne had no reason to come for me. He had no knowledge of me being thisny’seraph.I didn’t even know what it was. The journey had been a tense, silent one. That was how Prince Rohan preferred it.

Another guttural moan echoed from above.

At least, that was how the Prince preferred it up until now.

“But if it is him? Prince Thorne?” Grady said after a few moments. “I’m not sure that’s going to be a rescue.”

I closed my eyes as that pressure increased, feeling as if it would drag me through the bed. I’d told Grady everything while I tried to free him. I still couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of Thorne killing me, especially when I felt safe with him. I wasn’t afraid of him.

But he also didn’t know what I was, I reminded myself. That could change the moment he discovered that I was this . . . this thing that basically stripped him of his immortality. Why was that even the case? There was so much I didn’t understand or know, and it made this all the more frustrating.

“Lis?”

I opened my eyes. “Yeah?”

“You like him, don’t you?”

“Gods,” I muttered as a piercing pain hit my chest. He’d asked this before, but it felt different now. More real. Harsher.

“Lis,” he said, and the sorrow in the way he said my name, the sympathy and . . . “Do you remember when I was getting with Joshua?”

I stiffened. “Yeah, of course I do.”

“And do you remember what you told me?”

“To stop messing around with someone who was married?”